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Let’s try to look at this week’s gaming news without dying a little inside.

Zoe Quinn, the game developer for Depression Quest, was targeted by a vicious harassment campaign headed by her ex-boyfriend. The boyfriend started a blog about her, accusing her of cheating. This ballooned into him and his 4chan army posting nude photos and YouTube videos with personal information including her home address, sending her death threats and rape threats, and on and on. In order to pretend this campaign was anything other than some douche whining about his ex, 4chan accused her of sleeping with a journalist at Kotaku in order to get a favorable review of Depression Quest. Since the journalist in question never reviewed Depression Quest, that excuse quickly fell flat.

Meanwhile, Anita Sarkeesian released the next episode in her series, Tropes vs Women in Video Games. This episode was part 2 of Women as Background Decoration, and pointed out the many, many, (many, many, many) games where women are used as sexy props, or murdered in sexualized ways, or raped just to make a game seem gritty. This, like all of her other videos, was meticulously researched and impeccably presented, which naturally resulted in a surge of misogynistic frothing and wailing. At this point it’s coming routine.

I would like to announce that Polytron and the Fez IP are now for sale. No reasonable offer will be turned down. I am done. I want out. RUN AWAY. Just don’t do it. Give up your dreams. They are actually nightmares. Nothing is worth this. To every aspiring game developer out there: Don’t. give up. It’s not worth it. This is your audience. This is videogames.

Dan Golding’s article The End of Gamers suggests that these events–or at least, the ones involving Anita and Zoe–mark the end of gamers. ‘Gamer’ in this case refers to members of the community of video game players whose identity is constructed around the idea of being “outsiders.” It’s a demographic that has been targeted by video game designers in the past, but now that more adult women play video games than teenage boys, the market is going to change. For guys who are beginning to realize they’re no longer the target demographic, that’s scary, and they’re reacting with psychotic violence in a futile attempt to stop it.